The Commission today gave the green light to the Walloon aid scheme for
inland waterway transport, which will run from 2004 to 2007 and command a budget
of 1.2 million euros a year.

The aim of this new aid scheme is to stimulate the development of inland
waterway transport in Wallonia, as part of the implementation of a sustainable
and environmentally friendly mobility policy. Any natural or legal person
operating in the inland waterway goods transport sector in Wallonia will be
entitled to receive such aid.

The new scheme follows on from the Walloon aid scheme for inland waterway
transport for 2000-2003.[1] It
contains a premium for adapting the Walloon inland waterway fleet to technical
progress and a premium for the acquisition of cargo transhipment equipment.

The scheme includes a new measure: an aid granted to new operators and
existing operators of scheduled combined container transport services using
inland waterways from a terminal linked to a waterway in Wallonia. The subsidy
is calculated on the basis of the number of containers transhipped to or from
that waterway.

This aid is intended to favour the development of combined inland waterway
transport services to and from Wallonia over road transport, which has almost a
monopoly of container transport in the region.

The Commission therefore considered this aid to be in line with the
competition rules.[2]